Open AccessEvaluation of Internal Criticality of the Plutonium Dispostion MOX SNF Waste Form
Author(s) -
Abdelhalim Alsaed
Publication year - 1999
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/893831
Subject(s) - mox fuel , criticality , burnup , fission products , nuclear fission product , fission , plutonium , nuclear engineering , neutron , radiochemistry , materials science , chemistry , nuclear physics , physics , nuclear chemistry , engineering
The purpose of this calculation is to perform a parametric study to determine the effects of fission product leaching, assembly collapse, and iron oxide loss ({Delta}Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}) on the reactivity of a waste package (WP) containing mixed oxide (MOX) spent nuclear fuel (SNF). Previous calculations (CRWMS M&O 1998a) have shown that the criticality control features of the WP are adequate to prevent criticality of a flooded WP for all the enrichment/burnup pairs expected for the MOX SNF. Therefore, the objective of this calculation is to determine the increase in reactivity that might result from possible degradation of the WP criticality control features. Specifically, this calculation tests the sensitivity of effective neutron multiplication factor (k{sub eff}) to loss (from the WP) of the following: (1) fission product neutron absorbers, or (2) moderator displacement material (principally, the iron oxide that results from the corrosion of carbon steel)